Paint shields for shielding the edges of carpets or the like while painting the bottoms of the adjoining walls are well-known and are shown, for instance in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,693,589 to Knox and 3,788,274 to McNaughton et al. The prior art paint shields known to me, however, are all designed so that during the use of the shield, a relatively large portion of the shield comes into contact with the carpet, which causes a very perceptible and irritating drag as the paint shield is moved from place to place along the juncture line between a carpet and the bottom of the adjoining wall. Additionally, such paint shields are divided into two classes: those that have no handles and those which have handles which cause the paint shield to have an overly high profile. The former are difficult to manipulate, and the latter make it difficult to paint on the opposite side of the handle from the painting hand and do not permit painting under many cabinets or bookshelves that have a low overhang (for instance, three or four inches) above the carpet.
The problems suggested in the preceding are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather are among many which tend to reduce the effectiveness of prior paint shields of this general type. Other noteworthy problems may also exist; however, those outlined above should be sufficient to demonstrate that such paint shields have not been altogether satisfactory.